Annie Chapman

It is not known the exact day of Annie Eliza Smith's birthday, but she was born in September 1841 in Knightsbridge (West London) to George Smith of Harrow Road, a Private, 2nd Battalion of Lifeguards (at the time of his death he was listed as a servant) and Ruth Chapman of Market Street. She had three younger sisters, Emily Latitia (b.1844), Georgina (b.1856) and Mirium Ruth (b.1858), and a younger brother, Fountain Hamilton (b. 1861). Annie married her maternal relative John Chapman, a coachman, on May 1, 1869 at All Saints Church in the Knightsbridge district of London. She was 28. Their residence on the marriage certificate is listed as 29 Montpelier Place, Brompton. In 1870 their first daughter Emily Ruth was born. In 1873 their second daughter, Annie Georgina, was born. In 1880 they had a son, John Alfred, who was a cripple and sent to a home or charity school. Sadly, Emily Ruth died of meningitis at the age of twelve. Annie and John separated by mutual consent in 1884 or 1885. John Chapman semi-regularly paid his wife 10 shillings per week by Post Office order until his death on Christmas day in 1886, aged 44. Sometime during 1886 she was living with a sieve maker named John "Jack" Sivvey (unknown whether this is a nickname or not) at the common lodging house at 30 Dorset Street, Spitalfields. Although they never did marry, she was by then known as Annie Sivvey or Sievey/Siffey). He left her soon after her husband's death, probably when the money stopped coming. From May or June 1888, Annie was living consistently at Crossingham's Lodging House at 35 Dorset Street, Spitalfields. More recently, Annie had been having a relationship with Edward Stanley, a bricklayer's mate, known as the Pensioner. On September 8, 1888 she was found murdered at 29 Handbury Street. The police at the time thought that she was murdered by an unidentified murderer, afterwards nicknamed "Jack The Ripper". According to most historians, she would be his second victim, first being Mary Ann Nichols.